Madison, WI (November 22, 2013) – Last night, the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued a ruling that allows teachers across the state to vote to determine whether union officials can continue to claim to represent those teachers in their respective workplaces.

The ruling strikes down a Dane County Circuit Court judge's order that prohibited the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission (WERC) from conducting secret-ballot recertification elections that are guaranteed under Wisconsin Act 10.

With the help of attorneys from the National Right to Work Foundation and the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, five Wisconsin public school teachers filed amicus briefs urging the court's ruling. All five teachers are employed in workplaces where they have been subject to a union monopoly bargaining agreement, which means all five have been forced to accept the union's so-called "representation." The teachers work in school districts in Waukesha, Milwaukee, La Crosse, Racine, and Elmbrook.

"Many independent-minded civil servants have no interest in associating with government sector unions and they deserve to have their voices heard," said Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation. "Act 10 protects those workers' right to do so and now these civil servants will be allowed to participate in the elections that they were promised to express their interests regarding their union representation.

Wisconsin Act 10 prevents public sector union officials from collecting any money from nonmember workers, restricts union monopoly bargaining to the issue of employee wages, ends the use of taxpayer-funded payroll systems for the collection of union dues, and guarantees that public workers will vote on their union representation yearly.